Prejudice

Improving our ability to assess racial biases

Researcher: Sylvia Terbeck

Summary

We are all prejudiced. Prejudice can be based on
race, nationality, gender, age, physical features, sexual
orientation, accents, and divergent ideologies. This might be in
parts due to the fact that humans form groups; in-group and
out-group. Indeed, if we didn’t form groups there would be no
prejudice. Group membership can become the dominant aspect and
overlook individuality.

Can we reduce prejudice?

Our recent research has determined that emotions,
such as fear and aggression, might be involved in racial biases. We
found that a drug – called propranolol – reduced implicit racial
biases. We also found that it changed face perception differences,
usually associated with processing black and white faces in the
brain. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), as well as
pharmacological intervention, individual’s attitudes towards other
groups were changed. This opens ethical question with regards to the
options of moral bioenhancement. For example; if there was a drug to
reduce prejudice, should we take it?

But how do we measure prejudice? And are our
current measures reliable? Our current work, which is funded with a
small research grant from the British Academy, involves improving our
ability to assess racial biases, by using Immersive Virtual Reality
(IVR). This computer technology allows us to transfer humans into a
virtual alternative reality and observe in a more realistic manner
their actual behaviour. Indeed, in the future we might be better able
to determine our human social actions and to understand their neural
basis in the brain